Canada and Denmark appear close to agreement in their festering territorial dispute over Hans Island, with an amicable plan for both countries to split ownership of the tiny, barren rock in the Arctic being put forward.

A plan to divide the island — a 1.3 square kilometre rock between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Greenland, a self-governing territory under the Danish crown — through the middle would give Canada a second foreign land border and settle a spat that captured international attention as much for its absurdity as its potential seriousness.